Barry Bonds Reconnects With SF Giants at Guardsmen Sports Auction

Coming in early March, a sight we could never be sure to see again: Barry Bonds back in a San Francisco Giants uniform.

Is this part of a Mark McGwire-like attempt to rehabilitate his image? Is it the first step on the path to a bronze statue outside of AT&T Park? Is a confession and apology to Oprah coming next?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, says team president Larry Baer. Let’s not toss the bat and do the home run posture while the ball is still in the air.

“This is one week as a guest instructor at spring training,” Baer said by phone on Thursday.

But it is still significant. It will mark the first time that Bonds is officially back in the Giants fold since the last bitter home game of that played-out 2007 season, when Bonds exited the building, knowing that the team would not be re-signing him.

Bonds is the one who initiated the contact with the team, Baer said. He has, in the past, mentioned working with the team’s hitters. When Baer and Brian Sabean saw Bonds at the Guardsmen luncheon this offseason, Bonds again expressed his desire to help out and seemed more serious. Sabean and Baer talked to Bruce Bochy who ran it by his staff, including hitting coach Hensley Muelens.